Hempcrete. Houses made from hemp.

Hempcrete is made from hemp, water and lime. It is “non-toxic, mold-resistant, mildew-resistant, non-flammable, formaldehyde-free, and perfect for people with chemical sensitivities.” It weighs seven times less than concrete and insulates so well that heating and cooling costs are about half that of a normal house.

Due to our brain dead drug laws, the hemp must be grown elsewhere then imported here. Sigh. Look, hemp has a THC content of approximately zero and can not get you high. It has been grown for decades in Europe and Canada but is still banned here.

Jetson Greene wants to encourage the growing hempcrete movement. So do I.

2 thoughts on “Hempcrete. Houses made from hemp.”

There are 30,000+ things that can be done with Hemp. Production of Industrial Hemp has been legal here in Oregon (state’s rights!) since the first of last year, and our own Senator Ron Wyden has amended the Farm Bill under consideration to legalize it federally (right, like DuPont* is going to let that happen). Interestingly enough, and germane to earlier conversations, they single largest obstruction to industrial hemp comes from the high-grade “medical” marijuana growers, falsely claiming hemp would cross-pollinate their genetically modified weed.

By way of trivia: the first Anglo-European law here on Turtle Island was the 1650ish Virginia Mandate, which mandated that twenty-five percent of all agricultural production be industrial hemp. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and most of the “southern” Founders grew it.

* DuPont was the single largest factor in its criminalization, as it interfered with the production of all things plastic.

Actually it’s true that if you had industrial hemp anywhere near marijuana that in 1 or 2 growing cycles you’d turn the marijuana into industrial hemp. So that means that you’re not going to see some farmer growing industrial hemp and trying to hide a bunch of marijuana growing illegally along with it. So just grow marijuana indoors, and let industrial hemp be grown outdoors. First of all the grow cycle for marijuana can be narrowed down to about 3 months indoors instead of about 8-9 months outdoors. Second, a more controlled environment makes for better plant yields and potency for marijuana. I’ve heard a lot of arguments for and against marijuana being legalized 100% in the USA, but the arguments against making industrial hemp legal makes me wonder who’s really trying to stop it and why. It can’t get you high. Sure you could extract the very small amount of THC in hemp, but why when marijuana has over 10 times the THC content and you don’t need to extract it to get high, just smoke it. Then there is all the uses for industrial hemp, like rope, clothing, textiles, paper, concrete, insulation, etc. The list goes on and on, including bio fuel.

I think the main focus here should be that we have a plant that is better than trees for creating the same products we use everyday, is cheaper to grow, takes less time to grow, and would solve the deforestation problem that’s growing every day. Why should we be forced to import industrial hemp instead of being allowed to grow it here?